White-browed Bulbul

We have three species of Bulbuls residing in our garden. The red-vented Bulbul, the Red whiskered Bulbul and the shy and rarely seen, but always heard White-browed Bulbul (Pycnonotus luteolus) that is featured today.
Despite the relentless shower that we are experiencing, a few birds do not miss their daily bath routine. Perhaps it’s an opportunity to socialize or it’s just habit. They come in completely soaked wet, take bath in the birdbath and dry themselves under a nearby tree. It is also a time when they drink water. Which reminds me of the various ways in which I have seen some of these birds drink water.
Birds like Woodpeckers and sparrows, fill their beaks with water and tilt their heads back to let it run down their throats. Pigeons and Doves drink fast with pumping action and birds like the swallow, which spend a large time flying, drink water by skimming the water surface.
Seabirds of the ‘tube-nose’ group- such as giant petrels, albatrosses and fulmars which rarely touch land- have a long tubular nostril and the top of their bills. Excess salt from ingested sea water is transferred from the blood to the large nasal glands at the bill base; these excrete a concentrated salt solution, giving the birds, perpetual running nose!!

We have three species of Bulbuls residing in our garden. The red-vented Bulbul, the Red whiskered Bulbul and the shy and rarely seen, but always heard White-browed Bulbul (Pycnonotus luteolus) that is featured today.
Despite the relentless shower that we are experiencing, a few birds do not miss their daily bath routine. Perhaps it’s an opportunity to socialize or it’s just habit. They come in completely soaked wet, take bath in the birdbath and dry themselves under a nearby tree. It is also a time when they drink water. Which reminds me of the various ways in which I have seen some of these birds drink water.
Birds like Woodpeckers and sparrows, fill their beaks with water and tilt their heads back to let it run down their throats. Pigeons and Doves drink fast with pumping action and birds like the swallow, which spend a large time flying, drink water by skimming the water surface.
Seabirds of the ‘tube-nose’ group- such as giant petrels, albatrosses and fulmars which rarely touch land- have a long tubular nostril and the top of their bills. Excess salt from ingested sea water is transferred from the blood to the large nasal glands at the bill base; these excrete a concentrated salt solution, giving the birds, perpetual running nose!!

Orange-Headed Thrush

A pair of Orange-Headed Thrush (Zoothera citrina cyanotus) have been foraging in our garden for months now. I could hear their calls, occasionally see them zip past, but never did get a chance to photograph them. All that changed yesterday- Rain, which has been relentlessly pouring for the last five days stopped for a few hours and we had a few hours of sunshine. During these few hours, many birds arrived at our bird bath for a dip! In this group, were these Thrushes and I was comfortably seated to watch them enjoy a dip. Well I still do wonder, why would birds take a bath when it has been raining for the last few days and has soaked them wet anyway! These birds I tell you.

Jerdon's Leafbird

Since we started this little bird bath two years ago, there has been a gradual increase in the number and type of birds that visit it all through the day. Since the last few weeks we noticed a pair of Jerdon's leafbirds ( Chloropsis jerdoni ) regularly arriving for a bath every evening. Poor light in the secluded area meant that photographs came out blurred. Yesterday however, I did some pruning of the nearby trees and today there was light.
I was also delighted to have both the male and the female bird in the same frame and in the above photograph the bird with the black throat patch is the male and the one with a light blue patch is the female.

Jerdon's leafbird is named in honour of Thomas Caverhill Jerdon a British physician, who while working in India from 1836 to 1870 studied the flora and fauna of the region where he was posted and eventually covered a large portion of India.

Jerdon's studies covered not just birds but also  plants, ants, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals.

Several species of plants including an entire genus (Jerdonia, ex. Indian Violet), three species of lizards, three species of snakes and a whopping thirteen species of birds are named after him. Well if that was not enough, Impatiens jerdoniae is named after his wife Flora Jerdon.

In the two years that we have maintained a bird bath, I have made the following observations about the birds choice for a bath.
Our initial bird baths were not successful because they were too deep. After trying various household items, saucers  seemed to be the item of choice.
Birds prefers shallow sided vessels, from where they can drink without slipping into the water.
A rough surface like a stone, will help the bird to grip and small birds always prefer saucers with stones and larger ones like crows and cuckoo's saucers without stones.
Ensure the saucer is on a sturdy, slightly raised surface and will not tip over. The stone serves this additional purpose.
We change water twice a day, since the heavy rush of birds during summers empties the shallow saucers in 3 to 4 hours. Birds visit soon after feeding, so morning and evenings are rush hours.
A simple bird bath is all that you need to always have birds around you- Why cage birds and steal their freedom away.   

Common Greenshank

Hidden somewhere in my hardisk was this photograph I clicked in January this year at Neura wetlands in Goa. It is when I posted the Redshank yesterday, did I remember about the Greenshank.

The Common Greenshank (Tringa nebularia) is very similar to the slightly smaller Marsh sandpiper and especially if the Marsh sandpiper is well fed then identification can go haywire. There are slight variations in colours and patterns that experienced birders readily use, but I prefer to watch the bird beak. the Greenshank has a slightly upward curving beak, while the Marsh sandpiper has a straight beak.

The bird breeds in sub-arctic region (anywhere from Scotland, northern Europe to North Russia) and visits in Indian subcontinent during winters.

If you love reading, and especially about nature, then there is a wonderful book that I can recommend, that I personally enjoyed. It is titled  'Greenshanks' by Desmond Nethersole-Thompson, Maimie . They spent days and years watching, observing and studying Greenshanks and this book is a wonderful compilation of those observation.

Darter

Perched on the top of a mangrove tree was a solitary Darter (Anhinga melanogaster) and on closer examination it turned out to be a juvenile bird.
The darter is named so, because unlike many birds that catch fish between their beaks, the darter impales its prey like a skewer piercing kebabs.
Darters and their relatives the Cormorants, although spend a great deal of time diving in water, have their feathers so constructed that they get thoroughly wet. This is advantageous to these birds because by losing the air trapped beneath them, they become much less buoyant and so can dive in pursuit of fish with greater ease. When they have finished fishing, they have   to stand on the rocks wings outstretched drying themselves.
If you remember your science classes in High school or higher secondary, then you will surely recollect the tiny little fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster ) - that tiny fly and this large bird both share the same species name; melanogaster meaning black bellied.
The species name, Anhinga, comes from the Brazilian Tupi language meaning snake bird. When swimming only the colored neck of the darter appears above water so the bird looks like a snake ready to strike and hence the name. 

Blue-tailed bee-eater

Hello Goa, said the bee-eater, or that is atleast what I thought it said. During the same birding walk that I described in my previous post, we spotted this bee-eater.  For a while, we thought it to be the Green Bee-eater (Merops orientalis) commonly found in peninsular India. As the bird changed perch, the change in light helped us get a better look at the bird and behold we were face to face with a winter visitor- The Blue-tailed bee-eater (Merops philippinus). The bird breeds in North and north-east India and spends it's winters in the warmer southern India.
Like the name suggests the bee-eater eats bees and also other insects like wasp, hornets and ants, all of which have a nasty habit of stinging. The bird's long beak, helps to keep these stingers at a distance, away from its eyes. Once a prey is caught after a zigzag pursuit, the bird removes the sting by beating it against something, or by just squeezing the prey. All this does not mean that the bird does not eat non-stinging insects, it does enjoy dragonflies, butterflies and moth too. So it's not just the humans that eek out a living on the bee, the bee-eater does it too.
A few pair of bee-eaters make their nest every year in our backyard. The nest that comes to our mind is the one that is built on trees, with reeds and twigs. But unlike that, the bee-eaters, digs a burrow in soft ground. I enjoy watching, the bee-eaters dig out burrows using their feet and beaks. The ground based nest means snakes and rats take their toll of eggs and chicks; many pairs are left without brood. Bee-eaters that have failed to find a pair or lost their brood help out a relative with a family to feed. As older birds tend to be more successful at breeding, it is normally young birds that help the parents- which generally turns out to be brothers or sisters, hatched during the previous year.
As one drives around Goa, it is quite common too see bee-eaters or Drongos lined up on power cables, looking for flying insects, which are disturbed from ground as people or animals walk- it is a common character with all bee-eaters. The East African bee-eaters, where there are no power cables, hitch a ride on Kori bustard (the worlds heaviest flying bird). As a foraging bustard walks through the grass flushing out insects, the bee-eater sitting on the back flies off briefly and snaps them up. It is the only recorded example of one bird hitching a ride on another in order to obtain food. 

Shikra (Juvenile)

At a recent birding trip to Neura village in Goa,( thanks to our friend Tallulah for the invite ) we chanced ourselves on this Juvenile Shikra (Accipiter badius). It was flying quite low, from one bush to another, definitely hunting something. It's long tail and broad wings, gave the bird good maneuverability in tight spaces. Our presence may have been a bit of an irritation to the bird, but we parted ways quite soon.
 "I wonder that my very simple stratagem could deceive so old a shikari" said Sherlock Holmes, in "The return of Sherlock Holmes" by Arthur Conan Doyle. 'Shikari' is Hindi, Urdu and Persian for hunter and it is from this word the Shikra gets its name. The bird's usual diet consists of lizards, frogs, grasshoppers and small birds, but in the hands of an proficient falconer the Shikra was trained to hunt bigger birds like quails, crows and partridges. A Shikra could be easily trained by a falconer (in as short as 10 days) and was hence used by them to catch food for their more valuable birds like the Falcons and Goshawks.
The bird we spotted was a Juvenile, probably less than a year old. As a rule, birds of prey lay no more than four eggs. Eggs in the larger clutches are laid at intervals of tow or four days- and there is thus considerable variation in the size of nestlings. The first one out of the egg, thus has a great advantage over other fellows. The parents feed the larger, more alertly begging chicks and may neglect the others completely, leaving the the weaker one to die from starvation. So it is extremely likely that our Shikra was the eldest and the first to crack his egg.
'Lost Tribes Beverage' is a microbrewery that specialises in brewing beers using ancient and forgotten beer recipes. One of their beers is called 'Shikra', which is Aramic for alcoholic beverage. Meanwhile cheers and enjoy a Shikra. 

Black Winged Stilt

And I am back. 2016 started with a schedule full of activities and that is good tidings for me. Meanwhile, I went on a bird walk recently and spotted at least three birds that were my first sightings of the species. They were the Marsh Harrier, Grey-Headed Lapwing and Little Stint.
It is during this bird walk that I spotted this gracefully wading Black-Winged Stilt (Himantopus himantopus). I just realised that the bird's Latin name is a 'tautonym'. Scientific names for animals are usually composed of two words (not always, more about it soon): the genus comes first and then the species. Two animals of the same species can reproduce and give birth to an individual which can further reproduce. The genus is analogous to its tribe: a group of species that are related to each other.
The Genus and the species name of the Black winged Stilt is the same making the name a tautonym. A little bit of prowling on the net and I realised that there are many such toutonym's in the animal kingdom. Gorilla gorilla (the Western gorilla) is one such example and surprisingly the Western gorilla has a sub species too called Gorilla gorilla gorilla (the Western Lowland gorilla) making it a triple tautonym. Just how a species has a sub-species, a genus too can have a sub-genus and to avoid confusion that genus name is given in brackets- like Megacephala (Megacephala) megacephala (tiger beetle, Latin name translated- Bighead (Bighead) bighead). That now gives rise to an interesting possibility of some one having a quadruple toutonym. One well known such creature is the Bison (Bison) bison bison , and like you must have rightly guessed by now it is a kind of Bison.

Unlike the Zoologist the Botanist have taken a clear stand against tautonym's. I have been told that tautonym's are strictly forbidden for plants under the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature.

Meanwhile the Himantopus himantopus, caught some thing that looked like Chandramara chandramara or a Devario devario or it may have been some thing else entirely.

Grey Teal

A small respite in my schedule gives me a chance to resume my posting of Australian birds. We all associate ducks with water- so when I spotted a duck high up on a tree, I was quite amused. Although I had seen many photographs of ducks on trees, I had never seen one in real life. Well this time it was the Grey Teal ( Anas gracilis ). Another mobile duck,(just like the wandering whistling duck posted earlier) that keeps migrating irregularly, between freshwater lakes- looking for abundant food supply. When it comes to food they are not at all fussy and can eat anything from dry land plants,to insects and their larvae. The bird generally breeds near inland waterways, and nests may be placed on the ground, in rabbit burrows or in tree hollows. Eggs are also laid on the bare floor of the nest site, which are then covered with down (feathers).

Black Swan

One of my favourite books in finance is Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s "The black swan", a term he popularized to mean "An event or occurrence that deviates beyond what is normally expected of a situation and that would be extremely difficult to predict." The chance sighting of this pair of Black Swan ( Cygnus atratus , the scientific name means ‘a swan attired in black’, ) was something like a 'Black swan' event itself. A series of unplanned events, led my wife and me to a place called Hunter wetland center, where we spotted this pair.
We spent quite sometime, watching this graceful pair. Black swans are naturally found in in the wetlands of south western and eastern Australia and were hunted to near extinction in New Zealand, where they are successfully reintroduced now.  These birds are exclusively herbivores and feed on aquatic plants and algae. The swan is the state emblem of Western Australia and appears on the state flag.

Satin Bowerbird

When I started birding in Australia there were three birds that I wanted to see; Kookaburra, Satin Bowerbird and the Lyre bird. I have already posted about the Kookaburra, today is the turn of the Bowerbird. To my dismay, I did not sight a male Satin bowerbird ( Ptilonorhynchus violaceus) - but was quite delighted seeing a female. Bowerbirds themselves are quite drab looking birds, nothing eye catching about their appearance or colour. But what is quite fascinating, is what the male does to woo the female. The male builds an elaborate structure and decorates it with various artifacts- they could be anything raging from shells, petals, parrot feathers, berries to mirror pieces, ball pens, clips and other man made objects. They however prefer objects with blue colour or even the ones that shine. Once the structure ( called bower) is built the female inspects it and if she likes it mates with the builder. What the male has built is actually not a nest- but just a structure. The female now has to build her own nest and lay her eggs- while the male goes his merry ways.
I did not spot a bower in the wild, however I did see one in the Natural History museum at Sydney. The third photograph is from this place, and displays a bower with two stuffed birds. 

Pacific Black Duck

The Pacific black duck (Anas superciliosa), featured today is  predominantly brown duck- the only black feathers it has are a thin stripe near its eyes. In New Zealand, they are called the grey ducks, again they hardly have any grey colour on them; who says taxonomists are predictable ? The bird is found throughout most of Australia, and the Pacific. Recreational hunting (Isn't this word Oxymoron?) of this duck is permitted in some Australian states. We had a lovely time with the sociable duck though.

Wandering whistling duck

It was raining very heavily and going by their demeanor these Wandering Whistling ducks (Dendrocygna arcuata ) did not like the rain a bit.  They spent most of their time (we were there for a whole day) on a tree top rather than on water.
The are called whistling duck because  of the loud whistling calls and the whistling noise their wings make during flight. Wandering because, they keep migrating from permanent wetlands along the coast to ephemeral ones that are formed inland during wet weather.
These birds feed on aquatic vegetation, seeds, the bulbs of plants and other herbage, insects and small aquatic animals. Pairs mostly bond for life. 

Australasian darter

Many birds that I spotted in Australia were very similar to the ones I see in India. Such similarity I noticed in this Australasian Darter (Anhinga novaehollandiae ). Also called the snake bird, because of its long neck- this bird is a wonderful swimmer, as it is a fisherbird. Unusually for a waterbird, the darter has very little oil to make its feather waterproof. Hence after a session of diving and fishing the bird has to dry itself with its wings open. The lack of oil actually aids the bird, in diving deep and competing with other water birds which have a much shallower dive. The bird is found throughout Australia's wetlands. 

Magpie Goose

Most birds that we watch are generally quite active, hardly resting at a particular place for a long time. The Magpie Goose (Anseranas semipalmata ) though were an exception to the rule. Probably the most sedentary birds that we have seen. Found throughout the northern and easters Australian coast, these birds have an cry that sounds like a loud honk.
Although the bird has seen a decline in population over a period of time- hunting of the bird is permitted so as to maintain a viable population and also not to have an excess pest like population.
The red background that you see in some of the photographs is because of a water fern or plant called Azolla. This plant which can rapidly spread, in the presence of phosphorous is red in the presence of sun and green in shade. The entire water body was covered with Azolla giving it a lovely red carpet appearance.
Diverting a bit from natural history- a little Trivial pursuit. According to some dictionaries the plural of Goose is not geese as we would naturally assume. Geese is used only if there are 1,2,3,4,6, or 8 geese, if there are 5,7,9 or higher then its "gooses" .
If that was not enough a flock of geese when not flying is called a 'Gaggle'- when in flight they become a 'Skein'. The word 'Gaggle' originated  in the late 15c from 'gagyll', with reference to both geese and women.

Pink Eared Duck

For the next few days I will posting a few water birds. Probably a good way to start the series is by the most cutest of the lot- The Pink eared duck (Malacorhynchus membranaceus ). A pretty looking duck with a spatula like beak. It is called the pink eared duck, because it has a small pink spot near it's eye (though the female does not have the spot) . The duck is also called a zebra duck, because of its patterns. Its unusual bill is highly specialised and is fringed with fine grooves, which  filter out the microscopic plants and animals which make up the bulk of its diet. The water enters through the tip of the bill and after getting filtered is expelled along the sides.
I spotted this solitary duck at the Hunter wetland area.

Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo

Australia has five species of black Cockatoo's and these black Cockatoo's are endemic to Australia and found nowhere else in the world. I was so delighted to spot one of these blacks, that despite it not being a good image, I anyway decided to post it on the blog.
The bird is the Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus funereus ) once called by John Gould as the Funeral Cockatoo. Four of these five black Cockatoo's are listed as threatened. The population of Yellow-tailed too is declining and may be a matter of time before it joins the other four. Loss of habitat and illegal pet trade are the primary reasons for their decline.
Now for some interesting- Although Cockatoo's are related to the parrots, they are never found in green or blue colour, like the parrots. Colours in birds are produced not just by pigments, but by microscopically structured surface on the feathers. When light reflects of these surface from various layers, it causes interference. The greens and the blues are caused by something called constructive interference and the structure responsible for it is called the Dyck texture. Cockatoo's lack this structure in their feathers hence the lack of greens and blues in them.

Superb Fairy Wren

Both the images are of a male Superb Fairy wren (Malurus cyaneus), a gleaming, velvety blue and black bird. The male is so colourful that it is hard to miss it- so hard to miss, that I missed out on photographing the female ! Other than the colourful plumage this wren leads a colourful life too. The birds are monogamous and pair for life, but they are also sexually promiscuous, which means that each partner will mate with other individuals and they will raise the chicks together born out of such mating. So infidelity is quite the norm, despite the monogamy.
As a part of their courtship display the male plucks and offers yellow petals to the female. This restless insectivorous bird, also has an interesting way to identify parasitic cuckoo in their nest (see previous post). It uses a unique song as a password, which only the superb wrens chicks respond to. A very interesting bird indeed. The bird is found only in Eastern Australia and Tasmania. 

Fan-tailed Cuckoo

The first thing most of us remember when we thing about the cuckoo, is its ingenious way of dodging the perils and labours of incubation by depositing their eggs in the  nest of some other bird and allowing them to rear its young. Those exactly where my thoughts when I saw this Fan-tailed Cuckoo ( Cacomantis flabelliformis ) in Australia, which incidentally was also my first cuckoo sighting down under. To avoid having their eggs thrown out by the foster parents cuckoos have developed a colouration to their eggs that matches with those species they parasitise, so each race of cuckoo restricts itself to only certain species. This Fan-tailed chooses flycatchers, fairy-wrens, scrubwrens and thornbills, the Brown Thornbill being a particular favourite.  A single egg is laid in the nest and one of the host's eggs removed. The young cuckoo generally hatches earlier than the host's eggs and proceeds to eject the other eggs or hatchlings. The seemingly unaware foster parents then rear the cuckoo chick.
It was an amazing feeling to see a cuckoo here and it reminded me so much of the Indian cuckoo.